MSI R9 380 overview

1Description

Beef up your PC for high-resolution gaming with MSI's Radeon R9 380 Gaming 2G Graphics Card. With its 2GB of GDDR5 vRAM and 970 MHz GPU core with 1792 stream processors, the Radeon R9 380 is capable of driving displays with resolutions up to cinema 4K (4096 x 2160). This allows for gameplay in HD and above-HD resolutions and streaming of 4K content from sites like YouTube and Netflix.

For extra performance, the included gaming app features an overclocking utility allowing you to run the card in different modes to fit your needs. Silent Mode runs the card at its base speed to generate less heat, this way the fans rarely have to spin up. Gaming Mode, which is the default setting, has a moderate overclock for stable operation along with a speed boost. OC Mode has the highest performance of the three modes and runs the GPU at its fastest speed. OC mode on the R9 380 card also overclocks the vRAM up to a 5600 MHz effective clock speed to eke out even more speed.

Not only for gaming, the R9 380 GPU is based on AMD's GCN architecture and supports APIs such as OpenCL and OpenGL. These APIs can take advantage of the GPU's 1792 Stream Processors to accelerate parallel computing tasks, taking some of the processing load off of the CPU.

The output panel of this card features dual-link DVI-D, dual-link DVI-I, DisplayPort, and HDMI outputs. The HDMI and DisplayPort outputs support resolutions of up to 4096 x 2160. That resolution, combined with AMD's Eyefinity, can provide an immersive gaming experience using up to three monitors. The DVI-I output can be used with the included DVI to VGA adapter to support legacy analog displays and projectors

To keep cool, even when overclocked, MSI implemented their Twin Frozr V cooler on this card. The Twin Frozr V cooler uses two large fans to force air through the heatsink and dissipate heat and lower the GPU's internal temperature. Because this kind of cooler recirculates air back into the case, this card works best in cases that have unrestricted airflow.

4K Support

Display graphics, games, and video in UHD (3840 x 2160) and Cinema 4K (4096 x 2160) for increased detail on 4K resolution displays. Games which support 4K resolutions will display greater detail for enhanced realism and reduced artifacts. 4K video from services such as Netflix and YouTube can deliver full resolution video for an enhanced media experience.

VSR

AMD's Virtual Super Resolution is a scaling utility. It uses the GPU architecture in order to take advantage of 4K capabilities with lower screen resolutions by having the graphics card render at higher resolutions and then intelligently down-sample the output to fit the smaller screen. Aliasing and jagged artifacts are reduced on down-scaled rendering compared to a native resolution rendering.

FreeSync Technology

AMD's FreeSync Technology allows for communication between the graphics card and a monitor with FreeSync support. Having this communication enables the monitor to dynamically adjust its refresh rate to the frame rate being output by the graphics card, thereby greatly reducing tearing, stuttering, and other artifacts.

Eyefinity

AMD Eyefinity is a multi-display utility which allows you to arrange multiple displays on your desktop. Having multiple displays can increase productivity and also provide a more immersive gaming experience.

FRTC

AMD's Frame Rate Target Control lets you select a target frame rate for the graphics card to maintain. Since the graphics card only has to work as hard as necessary to generate a set frame rate, rather than try to attain unnecessarily high frame rates, game-play will be smoother.

CrossFire

AMD's CrossFire works with compatible motherboards and allows you to install and combine two of the same GPUs to split the processing load and render graphics with improved frame rates and image quality in supported applications.

PowerTune Technology

AMD's PowerTune Technology allows the GPU to run at higher clock speeds with sufficient thermal headroom. PowerTune will intelligently adjust the clock speed when the GPU's temperature and power consumption to give the best performance possible at a given temperature.

ZeroCore Power Technology

Shuts down the GPU when not in use to greatly reduce power usage while the card is idle.